'Don't Worry Darling' Star Nick Kroll Jokes He Encouraged Harry Styles to 'Spit on Chris Pine'

Nick Kroll is having a laugh about the attention on behind-the-scene rumors surrounding his new movie.

The comedian, 44, plays director/star Olivia Wilde's character Bunny's husband Dean in Don't Worry Darling, which debuted at No. 1 at the domestic box office over the weekend. While on The Tonight Show Monday, Kroll joked to host Jimmy Fallon that he is the mastermind behind the headlines to help promote the project.

"The movie, if you haven't seen it yet, it's a thriller, and I think the less you know about the movie going in the better so that when you're watching it it's all new and surprising. So I decided let's make a lot of buzz around the film but not about the film itself, right? I'm the puppeteer."

Kroll joked that he encouraged costar Harry Styles to spit on cast mate Chris Pine at the Venice Film Festival premiere to drum up viral internet fodder. (Pine's rep denied that Styles spit on him after speculation, and the pop star joked about the situation at a concert days later.)

RELATED: Don't Worry Darling Crew Disputes Claims of on-Set Drama Between Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh

Warner Bros. Pictures

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"I was like, 'Hey Harry, you know what would be a great idea? When you walk into the premiere at Venice, spit on Chris Pine.' And he was like, 'Got it,' but then he was like, 'I don't know if that's gonna work,' " Kroll joked, adding of their smooch after the screening: "Then I was like, 'Maybe you should just, you know, give me a kiss.' "

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Cast of Don't Worry Darling (2022)

"And then I asked him to spit in my mouth," Kroll added. "He wouldn't do that. He's got boundaries. But it ended up working."

Wilde, 38, recently said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that Styles, 28, did not, in fact, spit on Pine, 42. She referred to it as one of the "weird rumors" surrounding the film. "I think it's a perfect example of like: people will look for drama anywhere they can," said Wilde.

Don't Worry Darling — which also stars Florence Pugh, Gemma Chan, Kiki Layne, Sydney Chandler and Douglas Smith — is now playing in theaters.